Danielle Flora
Professional dance is a competitive industry, but the benefits to those who make it are sublime, film and television choreographer Danielle Flora told students. Aspiring dancers should never stop learning, attending classes and watching peers’ performances, she said. “Entertainment can be a rough business, but dancers I’ve worked with have been able to see the world while on tour with some of the most famous musicians. They spend their lives doing fun and creative things.” Ms. Flora began her dance career as a New York Knicks City Dancer before joining Saturday Night Live, where she...
Read MoreCatalyst Conversations: The Dialogue Between Art and Science
“You can talk yourself out of something really easily,” media artist Deb Todd Wheeler told Milton students in an assembly sponsored by the Nesto Gallery. “Ideas sometimes need a little bit of sideways thinking.” Ms. Wheeler visited Milton with artist Deborah Davidson, technologist Eric Gunther, and scientist Andrew Berry as part of Catalyst Conversations. Ms. Davidson founded Catalyst Conversations, which explores a dialogue between art and science. As the world becomes increasingly technology-oriented and visual, the connection between art and science has grown, evident in artistic...
Read MoreKeiko Orrall
Recognizing and respecting one another’s differences—rather than using them as ammunition in debate—is the key to civil discourse, Massachusetts State Representative Keiko Orrall told students. Rep. Orrall spoke at the invitation of Milton’s Conservative Club, and she acknowledged that the tact she describes is notably absent from national politics today. Rep. Orrall, the Republican national committeewoman from Massachusetts, cautioned students against assuming that people with opposing political views are “the enemy,” saying such polarizing attitudes prohibit compromise and grind...
Read MoreFanshen Cox DiGiovanni
Educator, actor and producer Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni performed her one-woman multimedia show, One Drop of Love, in which she explores her own racial identity in the context of her family history and American census methods. Ms. Cox DiGiovanni periodically scanned the faces of students as if she were collecting United States census data, using methods from the 1700s to the present day. Census methodology throughout history has grouped people into single, incomplete racial categories without considering the multiracial identities of many Americans. The title of Ms. Cox DiGiovanni’s show...
Read MoreSarah Colt ’88
Independent documentary filmmaker and alumna Sarah Colt ’88 spoke with students as this year’s Henry R. Heyburn ’39 Lecturer. Sarah shared her process of developing documentaries of historical subjects, specifically the work involved in creating her film Geronimo, one part of the PBS American Experience series on Native American history. Before starting her own company in 2008, Sarah produced the highly-acclaimed biography RFK and earned an Emmy Award for Outstanding Science, Nature, and Technology for co-producing The Secret Life of the Brain. Her credits include the Emmy-nominated...
Read MoreRod Skinner ’72
Rod Skinner, Milton Class of 1972 and director of college counseling, was the 2016 Veterans Day speaker. Rod told the story of his uncle and namesake, Sherrod E. Skinner Jr. ’47, a Medal of Honor recipient who served in the Marine Corps during the Korean War, where he gave his life for his country. Reading a citation from President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Rod said the Medal of Honor—the military’s highest award—recognized his uncle’s “indomitable fighting spirit, superb leadership and great personal valor in the face of tremendous odds.” In October 1952, during an ambush by North...
Read MoreDr. Deepak Chopra and Dr. Rudy Tanzi
Sharing the “gift of self-awareness,” Dr. Deepak Chopra, a pioneer in meditation and alternative medicine, and Dr. Rudy Tanzi, a professor of neurology at Harvard, offered insights on happiness, fulfillment and good health that they have gathered from researching the human brain. In presentations to students, faculty and parents for the Lower, Middle and Upper schools, Dr. Chopra urged students to consider self-reflection and meditation important parts of their education and growth. After becoming disenchanted with the Western medicine he studied and practiced, Dr. Chopra turned to...
Read MoreJovonna Jones ’11, Osaremen Okolo ’13 and Kevin Collins ’10
You can find humanity and make social progress along any career or academic path, Milton alumna Jovonna Jones ’11 told students. “If justice and equity aren’t part of your life, you should examine that. That’s a problem.” Jovonna is a doctoral student in African and African American studies at Harvard, where she researches critical race theory, American art history, performance studies and cultural practice. She joined fellow alumni Osaremen Okolo ’13 and Kevin Collins ’10 in a discussion about race and service sponsored by the Community Engagement Program and the student club...
Read MoreJeannine Kayembe
Artist and executive director of Philadelphia Urban Creators, Jeannine Kayembe spoke with students this fall in a conversation hosted by the Office of Multiculturalism and Community Development. Ms. Kayembe was a teenager in 2010 when she and her friends started Urban Creators, an organization that helps transform neglected inner-city areas into safe and dynamic spaces. The group spent a year clearing a blighted, two-acre parcel in North Philadelphia of trash, pollutants and drug paraphernalia, and have since developed the land into a farm that has brought in nearly half a million dollars to...
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